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Israel’s Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved on Sunday a bill that would forbid the use of the word “Nazi” in any form, as well as words with similar sounds, for any reason. Use of the word Nazi would be allowed only for “educational purposes, documentation, historical or scientific research.” Offenders would face up to six months in prison and a fine of up to 100,000 shekels ($28,000). The draft law also outlaws “insulting someone by wishing or expressing hope that the Nazis’ goals should be fulfilled” as well as “lamenting the fact that the Nazis failed to achieve their goals.” The bill would not prohibit calling actual Nazis as such.

Delegates to the Modern Language Association’s annual convention upheld a resolution accusing Israel of keeping Palestinian academics from entering the West Bank, but rejected another expressing solidarity with academics that boycott Israel.

Mahmoud Abbas said in a speech to supporters that he will not recognize Israel as a Jewish state and will not sign a peace deal that does not include eastern Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state.

Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s body lay in state on Sunday outside parliament in Jerusalem, where thousands of Israelis waited to bid farewell to the maverick warrior-statesman who reshaped the Middle East.

Ariel Sharon, the former Israeli general and prime minister who was in a coma for eight years after he had a stroke at the height of his power, died on Saturday aged 85, Israeli Army radio said, quoting a relative of his family.